FRIDAY and Saturday saw Scottish Conservatives meet for our annual conference right here in my home city of Glasgow.

There was a buoyant mood at this year’s conference after what has been a difficult period for my party, but with police investigations into Scotland’s ruling SNP party and a First Minister distracted by internal factions we have a unique opportunity to reach out to people across Scotland.

At conference, I proposed the Glasgow Conservative Association’s Motion, which focused on our city centre recovery and the looming Low Emission Zone.

Having spent weeks now meeting with investors, I can share with you what they are saying to me.

That Glasgow is on the cusp of an investment wave, our city is uniquely positioned to bring in jobs, development and economic growth.

However, our current council leadership seems likely to pass this opportunity by.

The SNP/Green council seems determined to strangle our economic growth, development and jobs from our city.

The anti-business, anti-growth and anti-jobs policies are killing our city centre and it’s Glaswegians who are paying the price for this incompetence.

Take our city’s slow and archaic planning system.

We are one of the only major cities across the United Kingdom who do not have targets on when an application comes in and spades are to be put in the ground.

I regularly hear from business leaders keen to invest but who dread dealing with our council and local politicians.

Planning should be there to help compliment local communities with new development, not pit one against the other.

If Glasgow is ever to grasp the opportunity that lies before us, we must start here.

And that’s not a political issue.

It’s not right vs left, it’s common-sense vs utter stubbornness.

Just look at Manchester, Andy Burnham and Labour have adopted a can-do attitude to investment.

What a sad contrast it is to the arrogantly out of touch attitude from Glasgow’s local politicians who have basically erected a “Closed for Business” sign on the City Chambers.

Contrast that to the attitude of the UK Government and Michael Gove in particular as levelling up secretary.

They are recognising and investing UK Government funding in opportunities across our city which is why I was delighted to share a panel alongside him at the conference and talk about levelling up Glasgow even further.

That’s why I was glad my motion was passed confirming again that the Scottish Conservatives are unashamedly pro-business and pro-development because we know investors create jobs and we all know that employment is the best route out of poverty.

But development is just one area where we need to change the tone.

I’ve spoken extensively before about the struggles of hospitality and the rushed LEZ.

Put simply, how can our city centre recover with such an arrogantly out of touch council being told what to do by the wine bar revolutionaries in the Scottish Greens?

After the local elections, I pledged to listen to Glaswegians and that my party would come back stronger.

It’s not good enough for us to replace this useless SNP council with a Labour Party just as useless.

Instead, it’s the job of Conservatives across the city to show we are determined to play our part as well, to hold whoever is in charge accountable and push for a pro-business, pro-jobs and pro-common sense attitude to emerge from the City Chambers.

That’s my focus after our conference this week, and I hope you’ll join me in focusing on the real priorities as we offer a positive vision to the tired and scandal ridden SNP.